I dont know if US education is that different from Oz (of 40 years ago
anyway), but the ONLY time I EVER write a number down from the RIGHT, is
when I am doing addition of columns of numbers (makes the carries easier to
add in the next column).
If somebody reads me a number value, they start at the left, I start at the
left; if it exceeds 999, and they say '3 thousand...' I will insert the
comma as I go; if not, I will add the commas in later, from the right.
BUT I WILL NEVER WRITE A NUMBER DOWN FROM THE RIGHT normally.
BTW, 'three thousan four hundred and fifty six' = 3400.56 is purely an
Americanism, so watch out when you travel.
Who is it that writes '12,34,56,789' ? Nobody I know, but it rings a bell
somewhere?
Thanks
JP
-----Original Message-----
From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of Wirt Atmar
Sent: Fri, September 28, 2001 10:26 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] Wildly OT: Simple math question
Raghu rightly writes:
> There was this Mathematics Olympiad Quiz organized when I was in my 7th
> grade (1987) and they asked this same question. Only difference is that
it
> was 6 digit number in that question. No surprises there too that ALL got
it
> wrong..
>
> The reason why we say 3 as the last digit in this case is because while
> writing down the numbers, we usually start putting the "," starting from
> the right most digit and ends in the left most digit (for ex 123456789
will
> be represented as 12,34,56,789 or 123,456,789) and hence the reason why
they
> say that the last digit is the left most digit.
>
> Even in the case of 346.1, the last digit will still remain 3 because we
> don't put "," option for digits below 0 or after decimal (however small
they
> are) and the order still goes from right to left.
OK, now that we've got that question resolved, which digit in the string
346.1 is the topmost digit? And which is the bottommost?
Wirt Atmar
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